The Empathizer
by 5-stepsbehind
Summary: This is a one-shot that I've wanted to write. Danny really smacked around a lot and there is a bit of fuzzy love in the end.


These are just a bunch of random one-shots that I desperately needed to get onto paper (or computer if you want to be technical…) There will probably be many errors, because I didn't revise it that well, because this is such an insignificant piece of writing. This is the second version, the one I personally like better. Hope you enjoy! Oh yeah and a very warm thanks to VampireFruitloopsrule for the great encouragement she's been giving me! And try her story Twins. It's intriguing…and has a funny OC XD. See you at the bottom!

He was cold.

The air was filled with screams and howls of millions of the dead that were storming a lone figure that stood bravely against impossible numbers.

He hurt.

Foe after foe was vanquished but it was impossible to fight them all. The small figure was tiring and more and more injuries were inflicted onto him. The army, seeing victory close at hand, surged onto him with renewed efforts.

He was tired.

Danny Phantom, 14, stood on the high ground as he fought with all the strength and cunningness he possessed. Time after time, a heart-rending scream tore at the air as a bright green ray shot toward the unfortunate soul and stole its afterlife. The army had been scared of the almighty foe, which had vanquished so many of their kind. And even before that, they had confident of success, for they were great in numbers. But now, they were just angry. They were angry, sad and confused. Why must he have brought this upon them? Why must he hate ghosts with such fervor? Did he care at all that every time that his bright green light extinguished the light of another ghost, that he was destroying a _someone?_ A personality, an individual, a thing with a mind of its own? They fought desperately, knowing that they would sacrifice themselves for the good of all other ghosts. They fought to vanquish their enemy.

And Danny felt this. He perspired under the pressure of the desperate, enemies that did not care if they lost their life, as long as they helped to bring him down. And he fought desperately as well. He shot ray after ray, illuminating the poisonous green sky. He fought to extinguish the lights that were so determined to extinguish his. He cried out as he felt a green ray scorch his back. Turning around he gave one back and grunted as he fought on. After a while he started despairing of winning this battle. He was out-numbered, and badly so. His small frame shook as he tried to fend off his attackers. His body ached as it never had before, trembling from exertion and nerve-racking pain. Cuts, scrapes and bruises gradually accumulated on him. His whole body throbbed as one big bruise. The pain. It was inescapable now. It defined his very body. And the screams! He had never heard such sounds. He heard loud animal howls claw at his ears and he longed to just stop and give in to the darkness that he had so often heard described before. The darkness that was described to be so lulling and alluring. The darkness that promised eternal sleep and peace. The darkness that would be the escape from pain….the darkness that his family wasn't in. With that final thought he gritted his teeth and kept fighting.

But it seemed that he was fighting an uphill battle. There were too many. Just too many. And although he was much stronger than any individual of them, together they were the greatest force in the world. He was blasted back and forth like a rag doll, by a manner of different attacks. Battered and bruised he bled ectoplasm over the purple rocks. The sticky green liquid covered the ground and trickled out of his mouth. And he felt himself slipping, slipping, into that comforting velvet blackness that was slowly, slowly, enveloping him in its folds…

There was so much pain. So much. It was unbearable. His heart and body, begged him to end this nightmare. The screams of the forever deceased clawed at his heart and ripped at his conscience. He shivered at the hollow eyes that called him monster and stared with such detest. And outside of his mind, his body received the same treatment as well. Glowing claws gouged at his skin, green rays burned his flesh and swords and fists attacked on all sides. He felt his body convulsing in sobs, as he slowly, slowly, crumpled into the ground, getting pushed down by the sheer weight of numbers. With shrieks of delight, the army closed in on him to finish the job of their now deceased companions. But somehow he held himself together. He knew this was one battle he must win. He had to try, no matter how impossible it seemed, to win. The ghosts were outrageously weak, but so was he. They fought tooth and nail, growling and spitting at him, as he trembled like a leaf in the autumn wind. His body racked with sobs, he merely tried to shield himself from the attacks and struggled to keep himself awake.

The fight seemed to last forever. All the while the ghosts just kept coming. Danny felt himself tiring.

He was losing, he knew it. But he was done. His last reserves were emptied, his body burned out, and his heart a mess of shredded tissue. He was done.

From above a snide voice looked at the crumpled figure and said, "It looks like the show is over. Such a shame too. Good bye." With a smug and happy sing-song voice, complete with crooked smile.

Danny barely heard him, but he didn't care. He was done. It was time for sleep, which the darkness promised much of, enough to last him forever.

But then he heard the words, "Good-bye." At first it did nothing. Then he felt the words ignite some kind of fuse inside of him. Like a stray spark, the words made him burn. He was dead, so why should he care he thought. But he did. He didn't know why but it offended him. How he hated that voice. It reminded him of every enemy he had ever fought and more. It was the most annoying voice he had ever heard! It was like Dash, as he was about to shove him into a locker. It was like Jazz, telling him off for something he did. It was like Mr. Lancer, berating him about his D on a test. It was like Spectra and Bertrand, filling his ears with lies and picking at his emotionally weak spots. Then it was like Vlad, telling him how futile it was to fight him and how he was going to kill his father and marry his mother. It was all of these and more. The voice burned him and like a stray spark it floated in his mind. It floated, drifted, twirled around. And finally it landed in oil.

With an unearthly scream, he blasted back all of the ghosts in the area, and fought with a strength that he didn't have. He fought with a vigor that he no longer possessed. He fought with the energy that his body did not contain. Ghosts screamed and panicked, as they wondered how he had the energy to fight for so long and hard without dying, or at least passing out. An animalistic snarl on his face, Danny shot lasers at all the retreating forms.

The battle continued for a few more seconds that seemed like an eternity for Danny. The man who had said good bye to Danny, as he had walked onto the threshold of death, smiled grimly. He should stop this now while the boy was still alive. He would actually prefer that the boy would die, but he was still needed. And since he never wasted anything he was going to use the boy until he was burnt out. The man turned to the girl that sat next to him, with the grim smile still on his face. He watched amusedly as she looked in horror at the boy's torture; he reminded himself that she was probably feeling his pain as well.

Tears were gathering in the corner of her eyes, but she kept her composure in the face of her enemy. She was tearing up inside though. Her heart pained with every thump, feeling as if there were tiny daggers piercing it in every direction. She felt frustratingly helpless, and knew her composure was slipping. She felt the sharp prick of tears, and the amused silence of the man.

She was a beautiful creature, and as deadly as the silent shadow. And that was what some of her foes called her. She wore a simple dress of black clothing that was comfortable and quiet. A private ex-assassin she was known simply as the shadow. And that's all her victims had ever revealed about her; the single word "shadow" which can mean anything. She showed only two faces, one that was as cold as the dark side of the moon, and the other had no expression at all. Impassible and calm, it was a cold mirror, showing the barest of emotions. But not even she could see this and not feel cut up inside. She had been put with the boy to bond with him. Even in the beginning she had known that, and had taken pains not to get attached to the boy. She knew it would benefit both of them in the end. But even so, she rebelled against the torturing of the small boy that screamed and killed to survive. She shuddered as she felt his fear and confusion. Wave after wave of pain and exhaustion hit her, and she begged for the torture to stop, to end the tide of misery that wasn't hers.

For she was an empathizer. They were special in a way that priests and regular holy people could not ever compare to. You must be of the purest to learn the secrets, and even then, you could only have the best intentions in mind to use the power to effect. For empathizers feel what others feel. Although it is hard to achieve this, and can only be done when with no harmful intentions at all, it was worth it. For they could also instill little bits of emotion as well. Again, only the purest are actually physically capable of this, and therefore, it could never be used to manipulate the power for evil. She remembered the day she met her first ghosts clearly.

_It had been a beautiful sunny day. The birds sang in their trees and butterflies flew through the air. Laughter pealed out from parks as little children enjoyed the good weather. The gentle murmur of their mothers mingled with their shrieks. It had been a perfect day. It had been a day which she had almost died in. A mission gone wrong, a simple accident had been all it had taken for her to take that fatal blow. And as she had sat there gasping, she saw a light. And then she witnessed the most amazing thing. In a swirl of green, a hole opened in the fabric of the universe. Green streaks of light dappled the sky that was shown in that small opening. She stared in amazement. It was a portal. Wondering if this is was the door to the afterlife, she gasped again, coughing as she did so, as a figure walked out of the opening. A __**glowing**__ figure. A ghost. Her eyes wide in fear now, she made a small rasping sound as her breathing became irregular. With a snap, the ghosts head turned around. But instead of blasting her off the face of the earth, or taking her to the next realm, the figure frowned in concern. It then saw the blood flowing freely down her chest, and gasped. Calling out into the portal, it brought more ghosts. They walked over to her and peered down through spectacles. Panting heavily now, the woman was scared. She knew she was dying and she was going to die and join the ghosts that were huddled around her. The figures raised their hands simultaneously at her. She closed her eyes at the blinding pain that ripped at her soul. Crying out in fear, she struggled to regain consciousness from the white light that swirled and flashed behind her eyes. She desperately tried to hide from the pain in the far crevices of her mind, but found she had nowhere to go. She was already seeing her mind as clearly as she could get. With blinding bareness, she saw herself for the first time. She saw exactly who she was. And the knowledge was painful. She moaned, wanting to go out from her thoughts and feelings, wanted to go back to the way it was before, where her true self had been shrouded and hidden in the corners and locked doors of her brain. But she knew she would never be the same again. _

She shivered as she recalled the memory. She didn't try to bring up the past though. Who she was before couldn't be dwelled on. It was futile.

She had been under cover when he had found her. Hiring her as an assassin (for she kept the cover of one) she had been silently smug that her plan had worked. For the empathizers had been wary of the man, and quite recently found that he was hiding something. A someone. A small boy. So then they dispatched the special crew, which was not much of a crew because it consisted of 1 person. Her.

Ever since she had become initiated, she was special. Of course there were no favorites, seeing as their society was as perfect as it could get, but she was a _human_. She could approach the boy without scaring him. Something they couldn't do. She had a kind soul, but it was also a fiery one. It was by a miracle that they had joined her. In fact, many had protested against her initiation. But the elders had felt her, and everyone had agreed that she had potential.

But the mission had failed. When she had first joined him, he had played his role well. Oh yes, very well indeed. He was of a cunning mind and of an evil that rivaled some of the more sentimental empathizer's purity. It wasn't even evil anymore. It was just something that could not be named.

From the start, he had acted wary and made many efforts to hide the boy. Then when she had proven herself, he slowly pushed them together. When she had first seen the boy she knew it was going to be a hard job keeping emotionally away from him. His shy, quiet demeanor, along with his shaggy black hair and startlingly blue eyes, fired up a natural instinct to protect him. Telling herself that was what she was doing when she kept away from him didn't help in the slightest. She just wanted to hug him so bad!

But she had a job to do. And no matter what is in the way, she would finish that job. And eventually she detached herself from the boy.

Or so she had thought.

Now, she cursed her foolishness, as she stared through her tear filmed eyes at the scene of destruction before her. She struggled against the bonds that the man had put on her, physical and emotional. And she cursed under her breath as she felt Danny's wails. Doubling her efforts she tried as hard as she could to break free without attracting the man's attention.

Danny felt himself slipping. Whatever reserves he had had were gone. He knew sooner or later, he was going to die. And it was then that he knew that he had to do it. Sam had pushed it into his hand at the last moment, telling him not to use it until absolutely necessary, for the risks of death are high. It was a potion made from several different plants and extracts from the ghost zone. She said that Frostbite and a few other friends had helped her make it. Leaning in close to his face she had whispered to be careful. Then, realizing that everyone was staring at them now, she hurriedly moved away, biting her lip as if she had more to say. After a moment of indecision, she pecked him lightly on the cheek and pushed him into the specter speeder. Danny stood there in a daze for a moment, before snapping out of it and turning on the ship. Flying it off into the distance, he looked back at all of his friends and family, who had gathered there to say good-bye. Waving, he glanced one more time and had vanished.

And so, with the last of his strength, he opened the cork, and drank. Wondering if he was too late, he felt himself slipping away from the world of pain and cruelty, to feel a numbing sensation come over his body. If this was what it was like to die, it wasn't that bad. He felt so free and…energized? Suddenly feeling his eyes snap open he felt the inferno that was still burning lightly inside him, flame up again, as it found the fuel to sustain its burn. Danny felt the energy coursing through him like a cheap sugar high, and knew it wouldn't last. But the feeling then changed. It felt less like a sugar rush and more like hard nuggets of energy, as if he had just had a good night's sleep plus a high energy bar. Feeling the unearthly energy course through him, he let out a scream. It evolved into his signature Ghostly Wail, and blew back a good number of minion ghosts. His eyes burned with a fierce green light that matched his hands in intensity, and he bared his lips in a snarl. From the spectators, it seemed as if he had just risen from the dead; literally.

At that moment the woman felt her bonds loosening. She swallowed hard, knowing it was perilous to let her guard down right now. She was frantic, not knowing how the boy had just gotten the energy he had right now. She didn't know much about chemistry, but she knew that whatever can give someone that much energy when he was almost dead with exhaustion couldn't be good. Taking a calming breath, she let the anger and panic seep out of her, and let herself let go of all her emotions. She knew the only way to save both the boy and herself was to use the final trick. Total bodily detachment. She let all her emotions run free and let them fly around in her chest unfettered. She felt them and acknowledged them, but did not let them affect her mind. And when she did that she knew it was time.

Her eyes glowing red, she slipped off the rest of the bonds, and threw a fist-sized rock at the Man. Startled, he was distracted for a moment, and that was all that she needed. She ran toward the battle, swift and silent. As she neared the ghost warriors, they shrank back and bowed respectively as she walked amongst them. They had not paid attention to her before, thinking that she was just another captive of their master. Sure, some of them had felt her power, but they had dismissed it, thinking she was just a rather powerful captive. But now, they knew what she was. They knew of the empathizers. And even the vilest ghost would not attack the empathizers, for they were the ghost zones patrons, guides, and wise people of the far realms. They were the holy ones. And they had helped almost every ghost at least once in their afterlife. And it didn't hurt that they were pretty powerful ghosts as well. It didn't pay well to mess with one.

The ocean of ghosts parted to make a narrow path for the Empathizer. She was at her best now, and the power waves that emanated from her were physical forces, pushing back the nearest ghosts by half a foot. And slowly she neared Danny.

The miracle potion was wearing off now, and with disastrous effects. If Danny had thought he was tired before, it was nothing compared to this. He knew that as soon as the potion weared off, he would drop to the ground, dead, from exhaustion. Unbidden by him, tears formed in his eyes as he thought of his friends and family that would wait for him, not knowing what had happened to him. He was too lost to the void already to notice the path that was slowly forming behind him.

The woman neared closer to Danny. When she was in a 10 foot radius of him, she took a deep breath and melted the hard exterior that she had built upon herself. The hard brittle person she was known as vanished like ice under a warm spring sun. She let her true nature flood out, and it was like the first day of spring after an icy and brutal winter. Her kindness, hope and love came out of the deep crevices she had put them in. her friendly and jovial nature came out of the inner soul where she had preserved them for occasions like this. Most of all, she let the healing love seep out.

Danny suddenly became aware of his diminishing power. Still he fought with a growl hatred in his eyes, not caring or being able to realize that the best move at the moment was to hand himself over. With a roar, he pushed out his hand to vaporize the next ghost into oblivion.

Eyes still glowing with power, the woman reached out and grabbed his hand.

The effect was immediate.

Danny froze, shocked that one of the ghosts was fast enough to grip his hand and stop it like that. Then he realized that this hand was _solid._ And right after that, his fighting instinct came back and he whirled around to face his attacker.

The woman stood her ground calmly, anticipating the attack. Still, she was surprised at the speed at which he turned around. With some difficulty she grasped the other hand.

Now Danny was really scared. He struggled and thrashed like a dying fish, which, in a way, he was. His eyes wide with terror, he looked at his captor with an animalistic snarl. His face livid with fear, he panted heavily, each breath sounding like his last.

The woman looked sadly at the face that was in front of her. His teeth bared, his eyes wild, he was the picture of a cornered animal. Foam gently dripped off of the corners of his mouth, and his breath was thin and possessed a deathly rattle. She was afraid that he would not make it. She was afraid that she was not strong enough to save him. With a sigh, she started the procedure.

Danny looked through his sunken eyes perplexedly at the woman that stood in front of him. She was not attacking him, but just stood there, somber as a grave. He saw her swallow and brace herself for something. Squinting, he prepares to kick out at his captor, when he feels something in his chest. A small tendril of warmth that squirms here and there, lighting up the darkness that consumed him in the inside. Like a sedative, it lowered his eyelids and encouraged him to sleep, to let the warm folds of the void envelop him. Not the black blanket of death, but the velvety creases of sleep. Blinking, he fought against it, thinking it was some kind of trap. But unlike a sedative, the urge to sleep felt natural. He knew he was tired. He knew that his body wanted sleep. But the presence of the tickling feeling inside of him made him naturally suspicious. It curled up inside of him, licking at his hearts wounds, comforting him over the lives he had taken. And then he heard it. A soft whispery voice that said, _"Trust me."_

Putting his dumbfounded eyes on the woman, he flinched when the warm feeling inside of him intensified. The tendril of heat becomes tendril_s _of heat; multiplying like bacteria, it spreads out, inside of his heart. They go to work, patching up the gaping wounds that the screams of the deceased had made. They filled up his heart with comforting feelings of love and kindness.

He detested it.

He didn't want these feelings inside of him. He needed to detach himself from the feelings that made him think of the loved ones that he will never get back to. He was going to die. And he planned on dying without the ache of longing to run into his mother's arms, to hear the soft laughter of his friends, to see his sister's warm smile. The feelings hurt too much. Plus he knew that he was responsible for the deaths of the ghosts that he had killed. He didn't want to confuse himself about that. He had murdered, and there was no two ways around it.

_You're wrong._

Scowling Danny heard the voice again. Who was he to say whether or not Danny was right or wrong?

_She. I'm a she._

Freezing, he looked up at the woman, as he had dropped his face down to the floor again when he had heard the voice. He timidly wondered how she knew what he was thinking, and who she was. All that he got as an answer was a cryptic smile, and then the dam broke.

Like a rush of water, all the restrained feelings of love were let loose, and Danny felt like he was drowning in it. Gasping, he felt the last effects of the potion being washed away, and with it, the bone-aching tiredness. He felt his knees buckle as the remaining weariness pounded at him and as his body finally tell him to go to sleep. He felt the firm, but gentle, hands that had pinned his arms at his sides move around to hold him up. As his eyes fluttered with the struggle to stay awake, he felt the concern of the being that was supporting him up. He kept his distrust strong though, and shouted in his mind, "Why should I trust you?"

With a sad smile, the woman answered by hugging him.

It was the last thing he would have expected. Suddenly he felt very, very tired. Emotionally tired. He didn't want to trust this stranger, but how could he not when all the signs pointed to do so? From the act of hugging him, to the love that he felt from her, to the motherly worry that emanated from her, it all felt so very comforting. His head lolling on his shoulders, he let the barrier of distrust down, and greeted the warmth that surrounded him.

With a final sigh, the woman let her bated breath out in relief. For a moment, she had thought that he would refuse her help and surrender himself to death, all while she held him in her arms. So it was of great relief to her to feel him trust her judgment, no matter how grudgingly he did so. And that's when she let the last of her emotions flow into him along with a memory.

_It was one of those early fall days, where the warmth was tinged by a trace of cold. The breeze brought the smell of crisp leaves, and brought back memories of baking pies, pumpkins, and of bright red, orange, and brown leaves. Three teens stood next to a young adult who smiled at all of them and said "Hi. Do you perhaps go to Caspar High?"_

_The girl with the black mascara squinted and said, "Yeah we do. In fact we were going there right now. Why?"_

"_I just got a teaching job there and somehow, I got lost. My sense of direction is terrible and the directions that I got weren't any help at all." _

_Blinking in surprise, the girl said, "Oh. Um...well we could, uh, take you there."_

_Smiling, the woman said, "Thanks."_

…_..…_

_Danny coughed. The smoke from the fire was oily and thick, and stuck to the back of his throat. He desperately tried to go ghost, and stared abjectly at the ground when it didn't work. Again. He looked frantically around for a window, a door, anything. But there were none. Collapsing into a fit of coughs he huddled into a ball, with smoke induced tears streaming down his face. He hoped that the fire trucks would come to save him in time. _

_Suddenly, the burning feeling around his calves was gone. In its place was a lingering wet feeling, as if water had been thrown at him. He started when he saw a hand suddenly thrust into his line of vision. His bewildered stare was met with a dirty and soot streaked face that was severely impatient. _

"_Come on!" it yelled, pulling him up to his feet._

_They ran out of the building through an exit that he had failed to notice, and gasped and blinked at the clean air that had waited outside. _

_The figure brushed off some dirt from her face while saying, "You know, you do some really stupid things sometimes…"_

_Looking up at his savior, Danny said, "I know."_

_A shaggy black haired boy stood shyly at the back of the classroom, rubbing his neck while he plucked up the courage to say something. Taking a deep breath he turned to the teacher at the front and said, "Um, Ms. Cho?"_

_Turning around, the teacher stared quizzically at the boy and asked, "What is it Danny?" _

"_Um, I needed to ask you…I-I, um, uh…"_

"_Yes...?"_

_Get a hold of yourself Fenton! Danny mentally yelled to himself. Taking another breath, he finally blurted out, "Who are you?"_

…_._

_It was a scene of carnage. Trees were toppled, there were large craters in the ground, and rubble was strewn everywhere. But it was a happy mood that permeated the air around the battlefield. Looking at the boy next to her, a woman smirked and said, "Show off."_

_Grinning, the boy replied by saying, "Hey, talk to yourself. Did you really have to uproot all those trees?"_

"_Yes." Retorted the woman with a smug smile._

_Rolling his eyes, Danny stooped down and brushed off the dirt that covered an irregular bump on the ground. It revealed a small charm bracelet that sparkled brilliantly in the sunlight. Frowning, he stood up again and said, "Hey, isn't this yours?" _

_Bending over him, the woman hastily snatched it back and said, "Yes! Where did you find it?"_

"_It was on the ground here."_

"…_weird…"_

…_.._

_Feeling the darkness surrounding her, she smiled faintly and said, "Don't mourn me Danny." _

_Tears rolling down his already tear-stained face, he managed to choke out the words, "No. Don't leave me." _

"_I'm not going to." Coughing slightly, she said "I'm going to be all right ok? I'll just be in a different place..." _

"_NO! Don't go!"_

_Smiling she said, "Don't worry. I'll come back." And with a final shuddering breath she closed her eyes._

"_No. NO! SOPHIE!"_

_He pounded on her chest, muttering to wake up, screamed at her, all the while sobbing and saying her name over and over again. He gasped as her body flickered, and disappeared. _

"_NOO! SOPHIE...Come back. I need you." And crying he collapsed onto the ground, wailing for the mentor and friend who he had just lost into the void. _

_Or so he had thought._

The memory ended.

Blinking, Danny, with a supreme effort of will, looked up at the stranger and whispered, "Sophie?"

Smirking, she answered, "Sometimes."

Whew, that's finally over! Sorry about the cliffy and I really hope it got better! Also I know that the ending is rather like Chris d'Lacey's Fire Eternal, but trust me I wasn't trying to copy him! It's just that the same idea had been in my head and I just so happened to write out it after he had written the book. So, sorry I wasn't trying to copy him! And yes it was rather confusing, really sorry about that too.

Yes it's terrible. This is what happens when I try making an angst story. I'm no good at it.

Anyhow, if you wanna flame, then here you go! All you need to do is click that little button right there….

See that shiny little button right there? The one that says, "Review"? Click it! You know you want to. It'll bring you supreme happiness…


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